


Night Off

by Bluspirit92



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Candy, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 04:03:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5115152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluspirit92/pseuds/Bluspirit92
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fred and Gunn have some Halloween fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Off

**Author's Note:**

> This was my entry for the Magic Box Halloween Drabble Exchange for the prompt of Anything. It takes place in early season 3, around Quickening. Hope you like it!

Halloween is always a slow day at Angel Investigations. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s nice to have a day where Cordelia doesn’t get crippling visions, or where Wesley doesn’t translate some world ending prophecy, or where no one shows up looking to kill Angel.

For Gunn, in the old days, Halloween was a big deal. It was they one day of the year they could truly relax. So they always threw a big party, and ate way too much candy. Sure there were other parties, but this was the big one, with no one looking over their shoulders for vampires. It was a day they could just be kids again. It was the best day of the year.

It’s not quite the same at Angel investigations. Sure, Cordelia buys a bag of chocolate and leaves it out all day, Angel complains about all the little kids running in the street, and Wesley gives everyone overly graphic descriptions of sacrifices that used to happen on Halloween, but overall, it’s just a pretty relaxing day. Not really the same.

But hey, he’s not complaining. It’s just, the idea of Halloween as the best night of the year is still stuck in his head, and when he realizes it’s probably Fred’s first one back, he decides to make it special.

 

“Oooh, can I be a zombie?” she asks, clapping her hands when she sees him come in with the fake blood and costume store makeup. It’s nothing too fancy, but Gunn didn’t want to go for a specific costume without her input, so he just grabbed some fangs and blood.

They spend the next half hour trying to draw cuts on Fred’s face and failing miserably, because while they’ve both got experience with real wounds, making fake ones is apparently a bit beyond them. So Fred ends up with some red lines and splatters on her face, and bandages around her hands (real bandages, because that’s just the kind of job they have). She does look like a zombie. A zombie who tried face paint possibly, but still, a zombie.

She lurches towards Gunn, arms out. “I’m gonna eat your delicious brains,” she growls, and all Gunn can think is ‘adorable’.

She notices his smile, and puts her hands on her hips in mock anger. “Hey. Am I not scary or something?”

“No, you’re the scariest zombie I’ve ever seen,”

Then the costume attention turns to Gunn. He looks around the room like he’s pretending he hasn’t forgotten something. Then he picks up his axe and swings it a bit before resting it on his shoulder, “I’m going as a badass demon hunter,”

Fred giggles, and Gunn would be offended, but he knows she’s not being mean, and he’s glad he can make her smile.

“That’s not a costume, silly. You can’t go as what you are. That’s totally missing the point,” she pauses, searching for a metaphor, “it’d be like if I went as a genius physicist.”

She makes face and laughs a little, “That didn’t come out very modest, did it?”

“It came out real honest,” Gunn smiles.

Fred blushes a little and grins, “Anyway, my point is, that’s not a real costume. And I can’t be the only one with a costume,”

Gunn grabs a pair of plastic fake fangs and shoves them in his mouth.

“Okay. I’m a vampire. I’m a nice vampire. A vampire with a soul,” Gunn lisps, and Fred tries to hold back laughter. At his slurred speech, or the Angel refrence he’s not sure.

“Does yours fall out when you’re happy?” Fred asks, leaning close to him and grabbing the hand that isn’t holding his axe.

“Guess not, cause I’m pretty happy right now,” Gunn squeezes her hand.

Then there’s a shout from the lobby and they pull apart, moment shattered.

“We should go. We’ve got stuff to do. Mostly involving candy,” Gunn shifts towards the door awkwardly.

“Yup,” Fred answers and moves to follow him out.

 

They find themselves outside the hotel watching kids run around with bags full of candy, having gotten strange glances and a thumbs up from Lorne, for some reason.

There’s a long pause as they stand there, before Fred says, “You mentioned candy?”

Gunn nods, and looks around. He’s not sure exactly what Fred would regard as public humiliation, or how much of that she can stand. He figures there’s only one way to find out.

“There’ll definitely be candy. We could buy it, or go door to door. Your call.”

Fred thinks for a minute. “Well, it’s not Halloween without trick or treating.”

So that’s how they end up going door to door and getting strange looks from basically everyone around them.

But they get lots of candy, and are barely holding back laughter every time they knock on a door and watch the inhabitant hesitantly trying to decide whether to give them candy or not.

 

Fred’s eating her candy as she walks, and Gunn has definitely noticed her stealing some from his bag. He doesn’t mind. She smiles, mouth sticky with caramel, and he grins back.

They’re a few blocks from the Hyperion, slowly wandering their way back. “Should we call it a night?” Gunn asks.

Fred’s smile grows wider, and she pops a bunch of skittles in her mouth. He knows she’s got an idea. He’s slightly worried. This idea could be anything from getting ice cream to sneaking into a vampire lair. And the knowing smile is not overly reassuring. But it’s been his night so far, and he trusts her.

“We should watch a horror movie!” her eyes light up, “We used to have a marathon of them every year!”

Gunn blinks slowly. “Okay,” he says. That’s not nearly as bad as the worst option he was contemplating. And if she wants to do it, he’s up for it. They’ve already done his Halloween (lame-ass costumes and lots of candy) so now they can do hers (horror movies and lots of candy).

When they get back to the hotel, everyone has disappeared to their rooms. Gunn swipes the bowl with what’s left of Cordelia’s candy from the lobby and pours their candy into it while Fred finds a movie. They head up to Gunn’s room.

He flips off the lights, then sits down on the bed and places the bowl of candy between them. “So what are we watching?”

“Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s a classic,” Fred says, snuggling against him and hitting play.

Not much more than ten minutes in, it becomes obvious to Gunn that even though he fights vampires and demons all the time, he really can’t handle horror movies. It would have been completely embarrassing if he was with anyone but Fred.

But he must be adding some humor to the situation, because every time he flinches, shuts his eyes and basically clings to Fred, she’s struggling to hold back laughter.

“You okay there, badass demon hunter?” she laughs, and Gunn scowls at her before looking back at the tv, nearly screaming and hiding behind her.

Fred asks him multiple times if he wants it turned off, but he shakes his head each time and continues to hug Fred. He’s going to have nightmares for weeks, but she’s laughing, and he gets to hug her without it being totally weird, so it’s pretty much worth it.

 

Gunn wakes up the next morning curled around Fred, holding her hand. He sits up immediately, because this is probably really awkward. Fred blinks slowly as she wakes up and smiles at him. “Thanks,” she says, probably still half asleep, and hugs him. It’s not at all awkward. Really great actually.

So yeah, Halloween is still officially the best day of the year.


End file.
